Val Kilmer was diagnosed with throat cancer in 2015 and battled it for two years.
Thankfully, today he is cancer-free.
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But in a recently released memoir, I’m Your Huckleberry , he reveals that if not for his ex-girlfriend, Cher, helping him get through it, his experience would have been much worse.
For a brief period of time in the early ’80s, pop icon, Cher, dated Val Kilmer.
While their romantic relationship did not exactly go the distance, their friendship eventually became monumental during an extremely difficult time in Val’s life.
In 2015, he was unfortunately, diagnosed with throat cancer.
He battled with cancer for two years before finally being declared cancer-free. However, he has never publicly opened up about it.
Until now!
In his new memoir “I’m Your Huckleberry”, he opens up for the first time about it.
Revealing that it was his ex-girlfriend, Cher, who helped him get through it.
“One night I suddenly awoke vomiting blood that covered the bed like a scene out of The Godfather,” he wrote.
“I prayed immediately, then called 911.”
“Then alerted my hostess. Cher stepped in and stepped up”.
He explained that despite the seriousness of the situation, Cher was the only one who could still make him laugh.
“And yet even in my grave condition, I saw her scanning the paramedic, who was Gregory Peck drop-dead handsome,” he wrote.
“Only in Hollywood, right?,” he added .
“Despite the fact that I was covered in blood, I caught her eye and bounced my brows like Groucho Marx.”
Side note: His memoir seems so well-written and perfectly descriptive.
I was able to imagine this story so vividly.
“Hubba hubba. Cher was bashful to be busted but then couldn’t help laughing out loud at the audacity.”
“Here we were, joking about beauty and desire, while I looked like a stunt man from Tarantino’s Reservoir Dogs”.
He went on, explaining that even though his life seemed to be in immediate danger and that it probably wasn’t the most appropriate time to crack jokes, with Cher, he couldn’t help himself.
“And, yes, while my life seemed to be in mortal danger,” he wrote .
He added that if not for the oxygen mask that he was forced to wear, they probably would have kept up their playful banter.
“We laughed out loud before they finished with my vitals and shut me up with an oxygen mask .”
“I have been healed of cancer for over four years now, and there has never been any reoccurrence. I am so grateful,” he wrote.
After undergoing a tracheotomy and two years of chemotherapy and radiation, he was healed.
Although his voice has been significantly affected by the cancer, he remains refreshingly optomistic.
He explained that he does voice exercises every day.
As an actor, his voice is obviously very important to his career. But instead of letting his speech difficulties slow him down, he’s using it as fuel to motivate him.
“The fact that my impeded speech could spell the end of my career only served to motivate me,” he wrote .
What do you think of Val Kilmer’s exerpt from his memoir, revealing that his ex-girlfriend, Cher, helped him get through having throat cancer?
Let us know in the comments below!
